Sicko and Lovey

Poor Joshua has a nasty cold. He can barely swallow or sit up. We stayed home from church to take care of him and Caitlin (ear infections...ich.). During the morning Mike came and got me to peek into the living room. There was Andrew comforting his sick brother. Talking to him and giving him loves. I love my boys. I love that they love each other. Lovies are good medicine.

At it again

He's at it again. Renovating public parks seems to be a hobby of Michael's, and with his landscaping background he is pretty good at it. The local lions club is working on the park in Mayfield and Michael volunteered to make a master plan for them. So naturally it was in the paper! Mike has already been in the paper for the Messiah Christmas concert, the middle school recognition assembly, the camp chair cinema, and now the park plan. I thin Sanpete likes Mike!

Joshua's Baptism

Joshua Michael Barlow was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday, January 15th 2011. Congratulations sweetie!!

Dad performed the baptism and confirmation. Uncle Jon, Grandpa Jaussi, Grandpa Barlow, Uncle Tony, and Uncle Daniel were in the confirmation circle. Grandpa Jaussi and Grandpa Barlow were witnesses for the baptism.

Joshua's best friend and next door neighbor, Mitchell, got baptized the same day. We had a joint program. What handsome young men!

Grandpa Jaussi presented Joshua with the beginnings of an impressive missionary savings fund.

Cousins, cousins, cousins! How we love them!

After the service we had a lovely lunch at the Mayfield Town Hall. It was then that I realized this is the first real "right of passage" for any of the children in our family. It was a wonderful, emotional, and happy occasion.

Handy Man

I love that I have a handy husband. In our time together he has fixed so many things I loose count. He has saved us so much money by doing jobs that anyone else would hire out. He landscapes, he does electrical, he repairs walls, he can do plumbing, he fixes cars, he can install anything. Mostly it is his no-fear attitude and sound mechanical understanding. I can only think of one time that he took something apart and couldn't quite get it back together the right way. That's a pretty good track record.

Anyway, these are all the things that were running through my mind to calm my anxiety as I watched my husband take apart my car piece by piece. The kitchen looked like an auto salvage yard. The inside of the car looked eerily like the terminator. Why was he doing this you ask? All for the cause of having a DVD player on the ceiling. Santa brought us the unit for Christmas knowing full well that it would mean a very big project for Michael.

Long story short, the car did go back together again. We have a wonderful DVD player in the car for those long drives, and I have a happy husband who has completed yet another impossible handy man task for the family.

Caitlin

What a sweetie

she smiles

she flirts

she cuddles

she loves

she eats with gusto

she sleeps like the dead

she has cut a tooth

she lights up our family

Joshua's 8th birthday bash

This year for Joshua's Birthday party we took a group of kids to "Jumping Jacks" just south of Provo. Our neighbors boy, Mitchel, turned eight the same week so we did a duel party for the two of them. What fun we had! The kids (and adults) had a fabulous time romping in the inflatables, eating pizza and cupcakes, and playing with friends.

Joshua and Mitchell -- BFF!!

The men mostly liked the pizza - something for everyone!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning is so magical! The boys were spoiled with Santa gifts and gifts from doting relatives. We had a blast opening presents in our new pajamas. Joshua got transformers and a race track, Andrew got a pillow pet and tent, I go picture frames and a griddle, and Mike got a nook digital reader. Of course there were all kinds of other neat things and we all had a good time fiddling with our new stuff all day.